Intensity, heart rate monitor or gut feeling?

kpkitten
kpkitten Posts: 164 Member
edited November 8 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi!

My resting heart rate is high, especially for my age. It's not unusual for it to measure at over 90. So when I use a heart rate monitor and try to calculate calories burned or just exercise intensity from that, I'm concerned that I'm getting an inaccurate result.
It doesn't take much exercise to push my heart rate over 100, and I can be doing what feels to me like a low-medium effort exercise and be hitting 130 or 140. Am i still going to be burning the amount of calories that online calculators suggest, or does my high resting heart rate mean that I will actually be burning less than this?

If a heart rate monitor isn't the right way to look at it, I wonder if my gut feeling, or my own interpretation of the intensity is any better? Again, I'm worried about cheating myself. Advice I've seen says that if I'm out of breath, strugging to speak, and sweating within a few minutes, it's strenuous activity. But although this sort of thing feels really hard, and I couldn't keep up the pace for more than a few minutes, I don't feel like it's enough to be "strenuous" activity (as an example, I can manage about 5 minutes on a bike averaging 34kmph with some resistance, and this will have me sweating, pretty out of breath and unable to talk, and unable to keep going more than the 5 minutes). My gut would say this is just moderate exercise, but if I'm effectively tiring myself out in a matter of minutes, maybe it is (as online guides suggest) strenuous?

tldr: are heart rate monitors accurate for calorie burn when resting heart rate is about 90? Is breathlessness and struggling to speak enough to indicate strenuous rather than moderate intensity?
Any advice or help would be much appreciated!

Replies

  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
    You should have a doctor check you out before entering an exercise program. No one here is qualified to make suggestions for this.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    47Jacqueline wrote: »
    You should have a doctor check you out before entering an exercise program. No one here is qualified to make suggestions for this.

    agreed
  • GrabacrPD
    GrabacrPD Posts: 94 Member
    47Jacqueline wrote: »
    You should have a doctor check you out before entering an exercise program. No one here is qualified to make suggestions for this.

    Always consult your doctor

  • redpandora56
    redpandora56 Posts: 289 Member
    look up the perceived rate of exertion scale - helps with the 'gut feel' method, so as a generic response I'd say you don't necessarily need a HRM. 'Strenuous' is a relative term - what might be strenuous for me might be a walk in the park for you, so it's more important to concentrate on how you're feeling when you do an exercise rather than what generic difficulty level is applied to an activity.

    Having said that - before continuing, I strongly agree with what the others are saying - ask your doctor first, who can better advise you what you should expect to see on an HRM if you do want to go that route, and what intensity is right for you. Then with that established, you'll be in a better place to confidently continue exercising within healthy boundaries.
  • kpkitten
    kpkitten Posts: 164 Member
    47Jacqueline wrote: »
    You should have a doctor check you out before entering an exercise program. No one here is qualified to make suggestions for this.

    Oh OK
    I never even thought that it would be something I should see a doctor about! Now I feel really stupid!

    Thanks for the advice everyone! :)
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    kpkitten wrote: »
    tldr: are heart rate monitors accurate for calorie burn when resting heart rate is about 90?

    HRMs are a tool for measuring heart rate, their utility for then approximating calorie expenditure based on HR as a proxy depends on a range of different factors, and some are more useful than others.

    Essentially they're "close enough", but the main thing is consistency.
    Is breathlessness and struggling to speak enough to indicate strenuous rather than moderate intensity?

    What you describe suggests that you're fairly unfit, so I'd agree that it's worth checking with a doctor before starting any training programme. Notwithstanding that basing your activity on "rate of percieved exertion" is good enough for most people to train on, unless you're looking at competitive performance.

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